Browse Bible Study Resources

Daily Devotions

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 
Day 
Day 446

"And I will accept you"

Text: Ezekiel 43:27

SALT AND THE OFFERING

Ezekiel was instructed concerning the offerings. An important word to note is the word “salt”.

“‘On the second day you shall offer a kid of the goats
without blemish for a sin offering;
and they shall cleanse the altar,
as they cleansed it with the bull.
When you have finished cleansing it,
you shall offer a young bull without blemish,
and a ram from the flock without blemish.
When you offer them before the Lord,
the priests shall throw salt on them,
and they will offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Every day for seven days
you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering;
they shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock,
both without blemish.
Seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it,
and so consecrate it.
When these days are over it shall be,
on the eighth day and thereafter,
that the priests shall offer your burnt offerings
and your peace offerings on the altar;
and I will accept you,’ says the Lord God.”
Ezekiel 43:22-27

1. Seven days of offerings.

a) The first two days were mentioned.

b) Daily offerings were to be given for seven days in a row.

2. Atonement

a) This was the main focus of these offerings.

b) There was great emphasis on “cleansing”.

c) Only after cleansing would atonement lead to consecration of the altar.

i) Atonement offerings.

ii) Burnt and Peace offerings.

3. Salt and the offering.

This concept must be traced to a text in Leviticus.

“And every offering of your grain offering you shall
season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the
covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain
offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
Leviticus 2:13

a) The phrase to note is “the salt of the covenant of your God”.

b) Salt was to be added for two major reasons:

i) Purification

ii) Preservation

c) Salt actually symbolically represented the Covenant with God.

i) God’s people must seek to be pure.

ii) They must seek to preserve this covenant-relationship with God.